A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force StationAP

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Wednesday morning, successfully deploying two communications satellites into orbit but failing to land the rocket’s first stage on a floating barge, an accomplishment the company had said would be hard.

In fact, the rocket’s failed landing on the barge was, according to a Twitter post by the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, “Maybe [the] hardest impact to date.”

The company was attempting to land the rocket’s first stage on the droneship called “Of Course I Still Love You.” The rocket’s fate was unknown as smoke obscured the final moment and the live video feed froze, but later the company said that they had lost that portion of the vehicle.

The company had said in a statement before the launch that the landing would be “difficult,” an accomplishment it has only pulled off a few times before.

Upgrades underway to enable rocket to compensate for a thrust shortfall on one of the three landing engines. Probably get there end of year.